Home is Where The Mosquitoes Are
7 Apr
So from the arms of danger (I even made a quarter page in Gulf News!) here I am in the arms of… sleaze. After two nights back home in Singapore I found myself in a Thai coastal town I’d never been to. For good reason.
Large signs saying “Girls Shower Daily!” left me scratching my head. Hygiene is surely important but why would one put up signs saying your female staff showered? And if you knew what town I was in you would surely laugh a knowing laugh. Pattaya, Thailand, the eastern seaboard town better known for its alternative take on Thai cultural exports. (Punchline: girls shower daily — some of the bars/massage places here do this thing where you can pay to.. well, shower with girls, and the rest is up to your imagination). So WTF am I here?
I’m working on a book. When it’s done it’ll be my third since November. If you haven’t found out already on Twitter, I have quit (1) Dubai (2) my job (3) the idea of a job. I’ll moving back to working for myself (and with L.) from now on, the only way I know how. What I’ll be doing exactly is best left unsaid, but there are companies to register and bank accounts to open, although I’ll continue doing what I do best: writing and photographing stuff. I’ll also be a nomad and a vagrant from now until June/July/August, travelling in the interim before moving semi-permanently to Kuala Lumpur.
I love my part of the world. Southeast Asia is just home, you know: the heat, humidity, mozzies, ants, food. My god, the FOOD. We’re spoiled to bits in Southeast Asia with our universally excellent food at all price brackets, and in the case of multi-ethnic Southeast Asian cities like Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and to an extent Jakarta and Bangkok, full of great food from a great number of cuisines. All four cities are some sort of home to me, and I’m glad to be coming back to this part of the world soon. But not before going back for the real Middle East: a fun bus/train journey I devised, from Beirut to Istanbul, through Damascus and Aleppo. Then on to London.
Sometimes, I feel like the journalistic equivalent of the backpacker-bartender (in that I do jobs all over the place in order to keep travelling). At the same time I have never worked so hard until now. Things are moving forward, in more than one way, and there’s a world of adventure out there.
At the Camel Races from our travel video podcast
